001[Music] Thanks. I call to order the regular board meeting, GCC regular board meeting, May 13, at 4:45 p.m. Thank you. Roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson, absent. Mr. Harry Block, present. Mr. Bruce Mandre, my Oh, absent. He'll be late. He will be late. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Jack Turner present. And Lily Campbell present. Welcome everyone. My This is such a great looking group of people here. Gateway Community Charter staff. Thank you. Thank you for being here with us and thank to those of you who are watching virtually. Welcome everyone. And so at this time we shall continue on with our board meeting. Do we have public comments? Yes, ma'am. We have one public comment from Hannah Larson. Miss Larson. Miss Larson. Thank you. You have three minutes. I'm going to reset that. Go ahead and Okay.
002Good afternoon, Mr. sample and members of the board. My name is Hannah Larson. I am a school social worker in our district and a licensed clinical social worker, the highest level of lensure in our field and the currently the only fully licensed employee in the GCC. I'm speaking today with support from other staff including the other school social worker here at GCC as well as some of our school counselors and others to advocate for corrections to the school social worker salary schedule. For some background, school social workers are trained mental health professionals who serve as a link between home, school, and community in providing direct as well as indirect services to students, families, and school personnel. Every day, we work with students facing mental health challenges, trauma, homelessness, and family crises. We collaborate with teachers,
003administrators, families, and community partners to remove barriers to learning, increase attendance, reduce behavioral issues, and build safer, more connected school communities. Our roles share some commonalities with school counselors, but we do have a separate and distinct role and lens. In the best cases, social workers and counselors work collaboratively to support the whole child in a school setting. In fact, at the last board meeting, the superintendent student advisory council called for more mental health counseling and resource support. That's exactly what school social workers do. Our students know it and they're asking for more. Right now, the salary schedule for GCC social workers is far below any of the other surrounding districts. Even matching the school social worker salary line with the counselors would put us behind Nento and Roba and just comparable with Twin Rivers when
004comparing daily rates. Additionally, with the change to our calendar approved at the last board meeting, our salary increased only by the daily rate we currently earn. And so, we did not receive the 2.5% increase all other positions did. Last year, my school CCCS paid over $150,000 for a contracted part-time mental health provider. And I know other schools have similar contracts. The problem is that the services offered by these partnerships are limited in scope and availability and they only scratch the surface of what school social workers are trained and licensed to do. We did not renew the contract largely because the value of the services we received did not match the costs that we paid. If the salary schedule for social workers was corrected, we could provide a better quality of services to all students for
005less than GCC is currently spending on contracts. I want to be clear. I do not think this oversight is intentional. However, it is something that we've been trying to get corrected for over two years. And I hope that with increased awareness that we can finally make muchneeded changes. We're already here. We already know our students. We understand the school systems. And we're committed to long-term outcomes, not just short-term solutions. We love the work that we do. We just want to be valued for it. I ask you to please look at and correct the salary schedule and invest in the professionals already serving our schools. Thank you. Thank you for your information and uh cabinet will be taking a look at it. Thank you. If I may add one more thing, I do have anformational brochure
006if I can provide that. Thank you. And now we are continuing on with our board meeting. Uh we are now moving into the superintendent's update. Thank you, superintendent. We're anxious to hear your update. All right. Thank you, Madame President, and good evening, uh members of the board and members of our audience. Uh welcome to tonight's board meeting. Uh, I will tell you we have uh quite a a lot of exciting uh items on our board meeting tonight from hearing from some of our students to hearing from one of our schools. So, I'll make my report out uh fairly brief. Uh last month, I did have the opportunity to visit each of our schools for the annual spring uh presentation. Uh these gatherings uh kind of allowed the opportunity to share some key updates with our
007staff as well as our school community. uh and uh information around the legislative developments, politics and as well as our strategic initiatives. I want to thank our sites for their commitment to uh helping us make that a exciting kind of fun quick day. Uh just for the board's sake, I actually visited all campuses in one day. Traditionally, this has taken uh over the course of close to two months. uh but the our staff and administrators helped me make it possible to do it on the Monday that we returned from our professional development. On April the 22nd, we were honored to host uh a deep dive visit uh with our CTAC and STAC and RTAC. Sergey, did I get all the taxs right? UCLA and UCLA. Thank you. Uh regarding our community schools work, uh this
008was a valuable learning opportunity for our colleagues. I want to say that in terms of the deep dive work, we are the only charter school system in the state of California uh that has uh received this kind of deeper look at the work that we're doing to build community and school connection together um as we work to meet the needs of the whole child. So, I want to thank our community engagement department for coordinating this visit uh as well as highlighting our work across the state uh with what we're doing with our um community schools work. On May 4th, uh we hosted our second annual innovators fair at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity. Uh we had over 400 families and 200 nonGCC families come together for an exciting day. And I think somewhere
009in there you might see uh me with a picture of an astronaut. Uh yeah, that is uh really our our principal at CCCSTK8. Uh as well as you'll see our our professional learning team that did a a phenomenal job of pulling this event together. Uh it was really exciting. Uh this event as well as last year and this year continues to ignite curiosity and inspire the next generation of innovators. And so I want to affirm our professional learning team for putting together this wonderful event. On May 7th, uh myself and board president Campbell, excuse me, had the opportunity and the privilege of attending Sava's annual CTE showcase. Uh it was really exciting to see our students bringing their learning to life through their projects and skills demonstrations. And I I will uh let you know
010that I'll let the the board president probably have a lot more uh time on that. So, I'm going to stop right there. Uh, Madame President, and doing your report later on, you can you can give all the rest. Other than I have to say that one of our ESAC members, Frankie, was climbing up the and that's the young man that you see on the ladder uh of the fire truck. Uh, and so, wow. We we'll just leave it at that. On May 9th, uh President Campbell and myself had the opportunity to celebrate our superintendent student advisory council uh for their end ofear celebration where we recognized uh each of them uh for their work and we presented the uh students with the resolutions that board you approved at your last meeting. Uh, finally, I'm proud
011to share, well, I won't say finally, I have a few other things, but I'm proud to share that 35 of our graduating seniors have earned the California State Seal of Biiteracy, uh, recognizing their high proficiency in English and an additional language. This honor celebrates their cultural and linguistic diversity and opens doors for future college and career opportunities, earning them the seal require earning the seal required me meeting rigorous academic standards. And we're incredibly proud of their hard work and achievement. And I know our director of college and career readiness will recognize our student uh later on. Has that student made it here yet? Yes. So, Ashley, why don't you come up and and uh introduce and uh share more about your students. So, Ashley Madden is our director of college and career readiness. And so,
012here she comes. Good afternoon, board, Madame President, Superintendent Sample, um cabinet. Um I'm just here so incredibly proud um of our student representative from Sava Power Inn. This is Demaris. Um and she she earned the seal of biiteracy through a ton of hard work. Um and I just want to recognize her tonight. Thank you. Well, Dearis, we want to say congratulations on this great accomplishment. And uh Madame President, anything you want to share with Dearis? Yes, we are. We are so proud of you and thank you so much for being here. Do we have anyone with you, a parent or a No. Well, thank you so much and congratulations and we're looking forward to seeing what other great things you're going to do as you progress in life. So, thank you so much for being
013here with us tonight and congratulations. Thank you. And then uh before I get to my last item, on May 10th uh we were we proudly hosted a series of cultural graduations and celebrations and you'll see those on your screen honoring the achievements and the heritage of our graduating seniors. These special events included our uh chconics and Latinx graduation uh celebrations as well as the AsianPacific Islander API uh graduation celebration and the Kente African-American cultural celebration. Each event provide a meaningful space for students and their families to celebrate their cultural traditions, reflect on their journeys, and take pride in their uh unique cultural identities. Our graduating uh seniors receive commemorative stos to wear at their upcoming graduation ceremony symbolizing both their accomplishments and their cultural heritage. I want to thank our planners for really their uh
014countless hours of work putting this together and the energy that they shared. I will tell you, it just took hearing uh one of our students speaker speak about why this was so important to her that we did this as an organization that made you just stop and just remember uh why we do what we do every day. Uh we had some great uh keynote speakers at each of our events who I think uh really did a phenomenal job of uh really speaking to our young people. We had the vice mayor of uh Sacramento uh who came to our uh ch uh chana and Latinx uh ceremony. We had uh a representative from SAK State, Dr. Nikki uh Kamuka Kamsukai. I'm going to let you do it. Yeah, you're going to let me do I'm gonna
015get in trouble. Uh who did a phenomenal job of speaking to uh our uh Asian and Pacific Islander. And then we had our own uh Mr. Mike uh from Sava El Grove who uh closed out the evening. On next Saturday, we will uh be welcoming and celebrating our Slavic heritage uh at their ceremony. And so we're looking forward, Madame President. I want to give space for you because you you joined me on the full day of activities. Yes, I did. And it was something to behold. We thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed the event. What he didn't tell you was all of the parents who were there had a chance at each of the grad each of the events to have food served to them which was very good. Uh from noodles and chicken to the kinds of
016pastry for the chano uh x and then the uh kente. We had a full meal, barbecued chicken, greens, uh, mac and cheese, everything was so well done. Thank you, communications department, for working with the people and the speakers were phenomenal. They were all very, very good. I wish we could have had more of you there to see what it really meant, but thank you so much to those of you who work so hard uh to put it together. Yeah, I was looking for you. There you are. To put each of the events together and to thank you for your hard work. It can only get bigger and better next year and I'm sure this was just the beginning and we will see a lot more that will take place next year and the years after
017that. So, thank you. So, I want to publicly just recognize um uh Julia and uh Ariana from Sava North Market and Maiisha uh for their coordination of these three events and then uh Sergey and his team of Paulina who will be coordinating next week. So, I just want to just take the opportunity to recognize these individuals as well as thank the GCC Foundation for uh their generous support of our event. All right. So, next we have our uh uh AI Mavericks recognition. And I'm going to start, but Dr. Gold is going to uh finish and and share a little bit more. But tonight, we do want to recognize the uh AI artificial intelligence uh Mavericks. Um, every time I think of Mavericks, I feel like I'm thinking of Top Gun or something. For their exceptional
018leadership in advancing uh Gateway's AI initiatives, this dedicated group has been uh on a two-year journey, and we've now reached the end of year two. In the first year, they helped lay the foundation for our understanding of AI and how it can uh be safely and uh integrated into our work. This year their focus has shifted to building staff capacity. Uh they led a wide range of professional learning sessions and were instrumental in developing our AI use guidelines and um the work that we're doing there. I want to just thank uh the AI Mavericks for their time, your energy, your passion, your innovation that you brought every day and your leadership really has been the foundation for our continued growth in this uh exciting and really evolving space. Uh I want to affirm Dr. Gold
019and her leadership of this team and I'm looking forward to and by the way this speech may have been created by AI. It wasn't uh uh but really want to thank each of you for really your heart, your your passion in this area. I believe that there may have been a t-shirt design is that did I get that right? It was we had a little design competition in our last meeting. Okay. So, is there going to be an unveiling? There is. All right. So, Dr. Gold, why don't you come and and talk a little bit about AI and unveil? Thank you, Mr. Sample. Um, not too many words. You guys know we've spoke a lot about artificial intelligence and our movement being trailblazers. Could not have done that work without all these incredible educators behind
020me. As I said, we had representatives from every single one of our school sites and all of our business departments as well to make sure that we were really looking at all perspectives. Our goal was not just to make an impact on our organization, but regionally. And then at the last board meeting, I got to talk to you about how we're also making a global impact. Uh Mavericks, I'm very excited to note that uh Mr. Sample has approved for us to continue our work next year for year three for those of you who would like to continue with us. And that year three will really work on full student implementation as well as the AI literacy. We were being very very strategic because it is a very powerful technology and we wanted to make sure
021that we were very intentional. So, we did just uh complete our student guidelines. Admin have reviewed it and now it's going to teachers. So, super excited uh about that work. So, I do want to recognize um those who are here as well as unveil our t-shirt. So, if I say your name, if you can just please stand. Well, actually, let's unveil the shirt. Then you'll stand and then we're going to go take a picture and you guys will get your shirts. So, uh super excited. We did a little design competition. Some of this was created, of course, by AI. So, are you guys ready? So the winner of our competition was Ki Nestler's design. So Ki and board members, you all have one of these. And then on the front, our logo that we will
022be putting on all of our presentations was uh created by Raymond. And I really want to affirm him because he got a lot of late night emails from me because I'm like, I'd really like our name in it. And can you make that till match the teal on the back? and that didn't happen at the same time. So, Raymond, thank you for for that. And then also our certificates are super excited. Montessa was also tied. So, we own your certificates you're getting has the logo that Montessa also created. So, we like to add it. Um, also I want to affirm Miss Demarco because she did help with some of these creations. If you make it in AI, it's not really great at reproducing the image exactly the same. So, I went to go see brilliant
023Miss DeMarco see. So, humans are still needed to make sure it was to perfection. And I also want to affirm our GCC Foundation because they are the ones who uh donated the t-shirts for us. So, thank you to them. So, on that, I'm going to recognize um the staff. And if you are here, if you can just please stand and then we're going to go ahead and come up. Actually, Mr. Pier, I'm going to recognize you first and if you can help pass them out and then we'll do a picture. So, first up, we have Paula. Paula, if you're here, please stand. Nicole and Nicole Still, sorry. We have a couple Nicole. Sorry. Nicole Steel, Brandon Beghazi, Raymond Redmond, Nathan Lee, Lydia J, Ki Nestler, Nicole Strobble, Darra Patel, Angie, Bureon, I did practice that.
024Uh, we have Ivonne Grassler, Joshua, Nicole, Duran, Jeffrey Munch, [Music] Rendee, Montessa, Celeste, Adam, Sean, Adrien, Anne, Robin, Ashley, Madden, and Jade Johnson. Did I miss anyone? Let's give a hand to those Mavericks. approximate. I don't want to roll. I don't want to roll. Oh my god. Are you superintendent report? Thank all of you. I know you're leaving now, but I really want to thank you for your work and this is just the beginning. And we really appreciate Dr. gold taking the lead on this and all of you working with her because uh and I have to again say this, this is something that one of our board members talked to the superintendent about. He said we need to start looking at it and from that statement this is what has developed. Jack, thank you
025very much for your inspiration and having us to take a look at this and see where it has grown at this point. So thank you board member and that's what we do. So thank you. I must say I I I really take no credit. I was just fascinated by it and we absolutely have a leadership in AI. Thank you very very much and to the staff and and the people that are participating in it. I I really think it's a gift for the GCC and will pay off into the future. Dr. Gold, I need to tell you this. I was at a conference last week. That's why I wasn't with you uh at the museum, but they had a workshop on AI and I was in a workshop on independent study. There were two of
026us in independent study and people were hanging out the room on AI. They didn't have enough chairs. And I thought about you and I go, she should have been here doing her work at this workshop. But it is very popular and it is something that the schools are looking at. So I just wanted to share that with you that I thought about you and wish you had been there but I know you were doing something else. Thank you. Okay board members. Any other comments? Anything else at this point? Thank you superintendent for your report. Really appreciate it. I hear a baby. Oh, sweetie. Thank you. All right, we got a big agenda. So, we want to continue to move on as we go through our agenda. We're in study session and the next item will
027be Washington DC student presentation. Hey, we're looking forward to that. Yes. Well, good evening, Madam President, Superintendent Sample and board. Uh I am just going to make an introduction tonight and then pass the microphone over. Uh we have our Saba Middle School teacher Michelle Fullerton in here tonight and she spearheaded this trip from the staff end and she brought a team of teachers and three amazing students to share about their experience in DC which was what just over a month ago now? Yeah, just over a month ago. So I'm going to pass it to you Michelle and we can't wait to hear from students on their time in DC. Thank you Mr. Elliott. All right, good evening. Thank you for having us. I'm Michelle Fullerton. and I'm a teacher at middle school uh Sava Power
028Inn and I did coordinate this trip. It was the first time for Sava and it was an amazing experience. So I brought some students and another staff member who went. We're going to speak about it briefly and then I'll close this out. Hello everyone. I'm Mr. Miller. I teach history at the uh Power Campus and I was fortunate enough to chaperone the trip. Uh I'm just going to briefly highlight a couple things. These are just a smattering of over,200 photos that we took. Uh we walked over 30 miles. Uh we walked 30 miles on this trip. Um had an amazing amazing time with the students from the um Arlington uh cemetery there all the way to two um natural history museum and the American history museum that we got to see and then the wonderful
029tour of the capital. So it was an amazing amazing time and um I'll let the students share their experiences. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Gabriel Wedding. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to go on the Washington DC trip. One of the most meaningful parts of our experience was visiting the Hall of Democracy at the Smithsonian uh Museum of American History. Earlier this year, we started a project-based learning unit that explored the founding of our country and the fight for American democracy. At the museum, it felt like the project came to life. We saw actual artifacts from the revolution and tools used by the founding fathers and early ear early early American documents and even a real newspaper printing press. It was powerful to stand in front of the
030objects we'd only seen in pictures and realize how real and human that history is. Thank you for helping us connect our classroom learning with the actual story of our nation. This made history unforgettable. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Evan and thank you for having us on the Washington DC trip of 2025. This trip has changed me as I want to travel more now and see more of the world and what it has to offer. It was great to be able to see our history and all of the people who shared the same interest. One thing that stuck out to me was all the history Washington DC contains uh in one city [Music] uh along with uh all the different cultures and and people and their food. I was I'm hoping in the future that
031I can go on more amazing trips like the Washington DC trip. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Shayla Linaris. Thank you so much for making our Washington DC trip possible. I had no idea how much I would learn from this experience. Each museum taught me something different and something I never I'll never forget. At the Simsonian Museum of American History, I stood in front of the Star Spangled Banner. I've seen pictures of it in textbooks, but seeing the actual flag that flew over Fort Mcenry during the War of 1812 gave me the chills. I was I was like touching the past. The the natural history museum helped me realize how diverse and beautiful life on our planet really is. From ancient fossils to cre creatures still alive today. I learned that the world is so
032much bigger and more complex than I've ever imagined. But the African-American Museum was the most powerful. Seeing all the artifacts of of the fight for freedom, things we've studied in class was emotional. It made me think deeply about our history and about injustice and about how people stood up to change the world. Thank you for giving us the chance to learn like this. Oh, she gets me every time she's read that. It just makes me tear up. Um, we can't thank you enough for this opportunity. It's been amazing. Uh these kids came back with just a different look in their eyes, the maturity. Um one of them didn't want to go anywhere before they left. I don't want to go. And I'm like, you really do? And now he just wants to travel everywhere. So
033it's been amazing. Again, thank you. I'm getting ready to get started for next year and and uh open the opportunity for other kids. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it. So how many did you have? We um three here and we had five students and two staff that went five students. Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. You brought back an experience for all of us. We're so happy you were able to go and to see and what you just told us how it has changed you is just phenomenal. Thank you for sharing that with us. And board members, I have a thank you card here. What else is there to say? GCC board. But thank you. We want to thank you for this amazing opportunity and we will never forget the experience. And I'll pass
034this around because she they also sent couple of tickets. Thank you so so so so much. And we're so glad the board was able to say yes and to give you students the opportunity. Board members, anything else? I can say I've been there several times and and I just love going back to DC, but I hate New York. I've been to Washington twice, but I didn't see much because I was at a meeting. Yeah. And I was in the meeting for days in my sorority meeting, but Washington DC is something else to see. It really is. Before you leave, we would like to get a picture with you. So, yes, come on up. All right. Thank you. Anything else board members at this time? All right, we'll get parents. Do we have any parents here
035we want to recognize? Any parents with the students? No. Okay, thank you. Just parents. Just us teacher. Move. where I'm going. Should I go anywhere? Yeah, he's a history more than so was every Thank you. Thank you. I have to come back. Thank you guys. All right. And now we're moving on. Moving on. And students, you may go home if you wish at this time. You may be excused so you can get ready for school tomorrow. Go do your homework now. Homework. And now we are ready for another exciting report. Futures High School annual school report. and we are ready for it. Thank you. Thanks everyone. Thank you Madame President, board, Mr. Sample. Thanks for having me here today. Talk about how great future is and all the things we've done this last year. U
036Melissa, thank you for the water. Really appreciate it so much. I love how everybody knows about that, too. You have two bottles. I did bring my own. I can't prepare it this time. All right. So, this year at Futures, we had a lot to celebrate. Uh to start, we earned a 5-year charter renewal, a strong sign of our trust and work that we're doing at Futures. And we also we also kept our status as CKH SoCage National SoCage School. So, I have six years. I was trying to figure out exactly how many years we were. Um I know the last three years we've worked really hard at what we've been doing at Futures with CKH. Um, so I I really not really sure about if it was six years or not, but I need to
037kind of verify that one. I feel like everybody since COVID started to was the first year. Um, but anyways, um, so, uh, Junior Achievement Stock Market Sea, we've been talking about that a lot lately. Uh, we've we're a strong showing again for three years now, first place. Uh, now we're looking to send our kids over to Georgia for the national uh, tournament competition. Uh on campus, uh officer Usher, this year was our first year that we've had a school resource officer that we felt was a great presence on campus who built a lot of relationships with our students and our staff and uh he was much help and appreciated for not just futures but also for Higher Learning Academy. Um more students than than we've had in the last couple years and we've always had
038kind of right around a good number of students taking dual enrollment. So dual enrollments continue to be one of our great programs that we have at Futures. Uh again over this year we've had 110 which we'll talk a little bit more about it in later slides but 110 students have participated in dual enrollment courses this year at futures and that number tends to be the last couple years have been right about roughly right around there anywhere from 100 to about 80 or so. Uh so really proud that our students are taking advantage of such a great program and we're looking forward to see where that continues to grow. Uh we also pushed forward with our supports with uh PBIS. We've just completed PBIS tier 2 uh expanded biomedical program. Uh our biomedical class and teacher,
039they have their own Instagram page. They're called the Biohead. So if you have Instagram, you want to check them out. Uh they post a lot about what they do in the class and they're really pumped and excited about that uh Instagram. Uh this year we've also added uh four new intervention classes than our master schedule. So we had two reading and two math intervention classes for students who need a little bit extra support. Uh we've also tripled our quest intervention reading which uh we used to have only one teacher now we've had three teachers who support extra um a few extra students during our quest time. Uh this year we've also engaged in our seal of civic engagement where our students are earning uh a seal to on um and they feel that's something that's
040give back to that's what's the term I guess uh give back to the community something they feel really proud in. uh they were also able to go to the legislative day that we had. So they were able to actually present to uh people who would make these decisions. So it was really great to see them have the opportunity to do that. And as well um this year we were able to have Maisha Brit on staff and the community engagement specialist. So having her on campus has been great uh in support with our communications and then as well just on giving back to our community and keeping us um doing our part as a school. All right. So let's talk a little bit about learning. Uh across the board, we saw growth in our CAST scores.
041Uh ELA scores went up 6% schoolwide with English learners uh up to 10% and Hispanic Latino students of 22% which we've all showed incredible gains in English. In math, we saw 10% schoolwide growth with similar gains amongst our English learners and Latino students. Science uh scores rose six points and our e eel progress is nearing 40% and our college and career indicators hit 26 and a half 26.5%. Uh during our our SLP uh driving the growth with our focus on structured academic talk to support our schoolwide learning plan we created three targeted PLC groups classroom management depth of knowledge or DO and academic language. Each team worked through three mini cycles and a result 100% of our teachers had showed some improvement in growth in students who engage with one another talking, thinking and collaborating.
042Uh some interventions. So what you see here um is our reading intervention classes and using I ready as a diagnostics. Uh, in reading, 60% of our students showed growth with 40% jumping more than one grade level. And in math, 65% grew with 41% moving more than a full level. I want to give a shout out to Miss Schaefer, who is our intervention teacher. Um, and also Miss Underwood who helped support with the reading and Miss Rubin who also supported in the math. So, across the board, uh, it takes a team, it takes a village to really kind of get our intervention uh, program up and running. Uh this year was our first year that we added that to our master schedule. It was something that we um continue to keep adapting, keep learning, figuring out
043where the needs were. Um and we're really excited to where this is going to go uh for next year. And that's just our our math uh data that I just also reported on. Uh so in I Ready, so we were only able to do two diagnostics before our presentation. Right now we're currently in our third diagnostic. So the numbers here are just from the first two. Uh so more performing on or above grade level grows 9%. Students who have one grade below improved uh 4% overall and our small we have a small gain of students who improve two grades below. But one of the big numbers is that we're reducing the number of students who are three or more below by 14% in English. I ready for math. Uh we increased 11% are not performing
044at grade level. We've gained 3% students with one grade level or more and then a reduction of 12% of students with three or more. So we're continue to keep making growth and historically futures has shown uh progress and growth over the course of the three diagnostics of the entire year. So I only anticipate our numbers to be right around what we see here now in the first two and um probably a lot more growth um across the board. Uh leadership. So leadership also played a big role this year. First and foremost, uh we were able to add a second vice principal. Miss Brangan joined the team. Uh Miss Brangan uh was a longtime teacher, was an instructional coach, and then uh her strengths and then what she brings to the team showed a lot in
045leadership. So we were able to get her on board on far as as the admin team. Uh we've added Miss Underwood as far she's an English teacher that we hired mid year. I just want to make note of that in December. Uh but she shows a lot of leadership qualities in instruction which is why we had her on the site leadership team. Uh Miss Houston joined teacher leaders this year. She shows potential growth and potentials on being an extraordinary leader in uh in education and we're really excited to what she's going to be doing this year in her project. Um we've also empowered new teachers to be part of our CKH process champions to lead professional learning communities. And then also just a shout out again to the AI Maverick team and Mr. cleft who
046helped lead the way uh for futures. Uh yeah, equity. So we added more math and uh this is for our what we've been doing for our students. We've added more reading and math intervention classes like I said uh or we added that to our master schedule. Um we're really excited on what we were able to accomplish in that small window. Especially like I said earlier, we were continued adapting. We were evolving. and we were seeing where the needs were and so we're really happy to where we are moving into our next school year. Um, another thing that we did is we aligned our calendar with HLA to give our families more dedicated conference time and we use their model to kind of help us get more opportunities to speak to our families. Uh, students also
047explored college options. So this year we were able to attend the historically black college university fair. uh were able to send a few students over to that um that event and two of our seniors were accepted to more than three historically black college universities um the day of the event. Uh it was a it was quite the uh what do you want to experience when we were I was at a birthday party. Maisha called me. She was like, "Hey, I need you to sign a bunch of transcripts." I'm like, "What's going on?" And she's like, "Well, we have a couple kids who are being accepted into colleges and I need your signature." I was like, I pinged her. I was like, "Here's my I'm at the park. We're at this birthday party. Come on over."
048Within 30 minutes, she came over, signed a bunch of transcripts. She ran back. So, it was like my my wife, she was going, "What is going on? Who is that?" I'm like, "You don't even know." Uh uh. But it's for a good thing, trust me. Uh so, well-being. When it comes to well-being and student wellbeing, we continue to improve on how we respond. We aligned uh support teams refined in our MTSS strategies and kept PBIS practices growing. Uh it's important for us to continue to keep exploring uh whatever resources and options that we have uh at futures but also within GCC. And I want to give a big shout out to Miss Ashley, our social worker, Craig, our school psych, our two counselors, Tatiana Lumi, and also a shout out to Miss Christina Gonzalez uh
049counselor for HLA. uh as a team, you know, they continue to keep working together. Uh they talk about students. We look at we meet monthly for um tier two and tier three uh supports. Uh we're constantly figuring out how we can better support our students and as a team. It's it's really something that they take on and they take so much pride in what they do and it's great to see that the students are really taking advantage of the resources they have on campus. Uh through them uh we also open the doors for more opportunities for students. So our biomedical pathway uh this is our second year in body in biomemed. So our first one is principles of biomedical science which was a huge success. Uh we increased that to an additional class and now
050our second class in that pathway is body systems. So currently we have one class of body systems. Uh like I mentioned earlier our dual enrollment program continues to thrive. Uh we continue to keep having a you know between anywhere from 80 to 100 students uh throughout the year taking advantage of dual enrollment courses. currently right now we have 82 students currently enrolled in dual enrollment. I just want to give a big shout out to Miss Tatiana Palashik our student our academic counselors for our 9th and 11th grade but um has taken a a huge passion in the dual enrollment program and success of our students and what that's offering to them and through that we've had 11 juniors this year graduating uh early because of dual enrollment and the hard work that they put into
051taking those college courses on campus. On campus, we do have two classes that are designated for students to have opportunities to take their college classes and to work um while they're on site. So, they don't have to do any work outside, which is what dual enrollment is supposed to be geared towards. Um it's not to allow them to have other, you know, more on top of their plate already from what they have just from high school. So, we give an opportunity and we have two classes on that and then hopefully we're looking at possibly adding a third because of the high number of students who need that extra support during the day. um which we could look at adding into next school year. Uh we continue to offer AP uh classes like AP Lit, AP
052Lang, AP US, and Pre-cal. And we added AP World this last year to give students more challenges and choices. On the engagement front, our attendance campaign made a big impact. Uh so just so follow me a little bit. So August 2023 to a to February 2024 versus August 2024 through February 2025. Okay. So just follow me along here. Um but uh our 10 our uh we had 62% fewer tardies in that span in that wind in those two windows and 77% fewer cut classes from August to February from last school year compared to this school years. Um, and that's a huge part into the work that Miss Buddha, our vice principal, did uh with attendance. This was something that she uh pretty much we started talking about this last year at towards the end. And
053this was a big project of hers that she continued to keep improving through um interventions and uh communications with families, working with students, working on contracts. Uh it was a huge huge huge success in what we were able to do. Especially um with Miss Buddha, somebody who I have full faith and confidence in data and in following through and when she gets laser focused, she can really devote a lot of uh uh energy towards and so um showing that is seen a huge success in just year one of something that was implemented and some of the stuff that we were able to work on. Uh so just a huge shout out to her. Uh we continue to stay with our athletic programs and our offerings that we have. Basketball, volleyball, soccer, wrestling, cross country, golf,
054and flag football. And uh just some extracurriculars. Uh we continue to have a few clubs on campus. Our one of our longest running club right now is Dungeons and Dragons. Uh it's a card game. Um our students like to really show off what they have and and Mr. Gutierrez is a history teacher who continues to show up either after school for the students who are very involved in that in that uh in that club. Uh but one of our new clubs that we have is BSU, our black student union. Uh we were able to bring that through the help and guidance of uh Miss Maisha and our lead teacher, Miss Houston, who is the full adviser for BSU. So we're looking forward to having more cultural clubs on campus that will give students voice and
055opportunities to be uh comfortable and you know to socialize, meet friends, meet new people. Uh leadership and NHS are continued our clubs that we do have. These are leadership are what you know we do our rallies with our student life and then NHS is a very community based group that we have as a as an opportunity for students to who are very involved in their community and uh just in just a few more slides we were able to really take advantage our field trips this year um giving more students opportunities to go visit colleges starting it earlier we usually tend to be like a junior senior group but uh we We really wanted to focus on our freshman and sophomores, getting them opportunities to visit other colleges and getting them that exposure. And then um
056you know everything is learning based. So our science teacher really took advantages of going to zoos and planetariums and botanical gardens and the fun stuff that uh the kids love to do. So what's next? Uh with the vision of Superintendent Sample, we will build an early college program uh to futures and set us apart from the other high schools in our area. Uh we want to continue to keep talking about facility upgrades and expanding support systems for our students. Uh we're pushing forward with CTE and internship opportunities uh with our team uh that we have at GCC and we're really already preparing for our WASK self-study in March of 2026. And finally, to keep students ground and supported, we've added Navigate 360 lessons for some SEAL and interventions. And then lastly, what I just want
057to say is that Futures continues to push academics growth and support through the ways that we've shared with you today. And we will continue to do so until Futures can be one of the best high schools in Sacramento. Thank you. And at this time, if there are any questions, I'm here for questions. I want to thank you for your detailed and and insightful presentation. Uh the uh it was impressive to see the recovery from learning loss. Uh and I know it's going to be a slow process to make up but those increases in the testing scores are are uh something to be applauded. Also, I would like to congratulate you on your efforts on getting retention and dealing with the absentee rates. I think that's another factor that we need to really bring bring down.
058So, I appreciate that information. I'm kind of intrigued with broadcasting and media only because I taught mass communication and broadcasting at one time. How can you elaborate at how you plan to deliver that to the students? Are you looking at setting up a small studio or how do you plan to to get students involved with that? I'll set up whatever you guys say it's okay to do. No, but uh so we have a we have an English teacher right now who's had over 25 years of experience in broadcasting and radio and we're always looking to try to explore CTE pathways and we know that Sava has had a broadcasting pathway. So um kind of building connections we working with Ashley Madden Maisha trying to get connected with the teacher over at Sava building that curriculum.
059So um it was something in futures is always looking at new electives. So we also kind of tied you know okay this could be an elective opportunity. So um so we we use the we're going to use some of the curriculum and kind of hopefully supplement for our teacher on how we can deliver that but it'll be delivered as an elective. Um maybe in the future we continue to keep using that as as a and build a pathway for CTE. Well, I I think the way I think it's a for many students, it's it's really some activity that they really would like to pursue and uh and it's and it's something that I applaud that you're doing it. So, anyway, thank you for your presentation. Welcome. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? Okay. Thank you
060so much. We really appreciate the report and uh all of the work that is being done. Have you seen uh with having more staff such as Maisha that the relationships of the students have gotten better or worse or you want to talk about that? Well, I think anytime you get a uh opportunity to bring more staff, you know, students tend to flow to that person. They want to know about them. Our students are very curious. Um, and I would say having personalities and uh great characteristics like Maisha and other staff members uh I think it's always a great thing gives students opportunities to to find somebody they can build a relationship with and then somebody they connect with. Maisha I didn't say I didn't mean that you called but maybe we thank you for being
061there. We really do and we have met some wonderful students. I have from futures uh through the superintendence council. Y and I've fallen in love with a lot of your students there. So I want to thank you for letting us have those students and and thank you for the work that you're doing and we just want you to continue. Now all of your staff members, we want to see you. Who are you? Where are you? So we can thank you. Thank you. because he couldn't do it by himself. So, thank you for the work that you do to make this happen, make futures become the school that it is. So, thank you again. Thank all of you. Thank you. Superintendent, you have anything to say? Anything? No ma'am. Okay. All right. We shall continue on
062with our board meeting. And we are now down to consent agenda items. All right, board members. I'm going to read through them because we quite have quite a few. I was going to ask you very quickly to talk about the trip that we're going to that's on our approve for the students to go to Georgia so that the people who are listening will understand what it's all about. I'm sorry. That was one thing I wanted to ask you. Yeah. No, no problem. Uh, so locally, um, there was a competition, a junior achievement where students were involved in a stock market challenge where they were given, um, a million dollars and within that million dollars, they needed to try to invest and earn as much money as they can and as quickly as possible. U, it
063was supposed to simulate 16 days of the, you know, stock market exchange, um, in a they were only given an hour. So, the hour is supposed to simulate 16 days. Uh so our our students had a game plan. They knew exactly what they needed to do and how they needed to do it. And so uh they ended up investing in or spending a lot of money on investing on on and buying really big and they earned $3 million which earned them first place in the competition. Uh so with that being said though, uh they then qualified um to compete at a national level in Georgia. And so that's where this comes up. And so, uh, this will be the first time that, you know, we've been able to do something like this. So, I have
064no idea what it's going to tell. I'm hoping for the best. We got some really bright kids who are, you know, by bye bye bye and that's all they talk about. So, we're really pumped and excited to see what uh what they're going to do. So, thank you so much for that. I hate to put you on, but I think it was really good information people who are listening and for our board. So, with that, we're going to go into our consent agenda items. Board members, approve adoption of GCC board meeting minutes 4825. Approve personnel consent agenda. Approve purchases over 30,000. Approve disposal and surplus technology. Approve lease agreement 3147 Dwight Road Suite 100 400 3137 Dwight Road sweet 400 and 700 Elgrove California approve job description update revisions approve DOS status Elgrove Salva Elgroveve
065and Salva Sacramento approve board policy reision revised approve school field trips approve Approve CCCS Shakespeare Festival Oregon field trip 105 1010 overnight and approve Futures High School, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia field trip 68 to 612. Um, so those are the consent agenda items. I will entertain a motion. Move approval of the uh consent agenda. All right. May I have a second? I'll second. Okay. Any other discussion, questions? Um, Mr. Block, do you have your hand up? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Uh, I'd like to discuss number five, approved lease agreement. I want to understand what that is with the suits that they rent. Yes. Uh, thank you, Director Balk. I'm going to ask uh, Assistant Superintendent Elliott who's been working with our real estate team on this project. Mr. Elliott? Yes. So at uh 3137 we
066are renewing two leases that we are currently already in. And at 3147 that building is split into two different sections. We're currently in half of that building and we are going to be expanding into the second half where we'll be able to grow our middle school program at Saba El Grove a little bit bigger than we can now in a smaller suite. when I was looking at the prices that they're cost and I think we can buy a building for all the prices that we're paying for all these buildings. Is that possible? Uh if the buildings are for sale, we could always look at that, but unfortunately we would have to there are no buildings for sale in the area of where the school currently is located and that would require a material revision if
067we were to move somewhere else to purchase a property. So that's a much bigger piece that we would have to look into. Okay. Uh, also I still have number approved purchase over 30,000. Let me go back to that one. What? Number three. Number three. Yeah. Catholic kid heart. I thought we was where are we with that? Caption kids heart. You who wants to take that? I I can speak to that as well. So, um, Mr. Bach, we have significantly reduced the cost of that contract um compared to prior years. This year, we're going to be holding um just one capturing kids hearts one training for our brand new staff members so that they can learn about the process that we use systemwide here at the GCC. And then in addition to the one training for
068new teachers, we do have what's called traction visits where um capturing kids hearts will have staff on site working with our teams periodically throughout the year. And just to add to that um uh director block uh this number is significantly less than it has been in uh previous years. So this is the bare minimum uh that we are are doing to still keep within the program. We don't have anyone locally that can do that that we can there's training and can there with capturing kids there is not a train the trainer model. It is very specific from the flipping group. So that train to trainer is not an option with this program, right? We can't utilize their program for the training. So yeah, it has to be through them. Okay, let's see what's uh take
069this. You have another I'm looking at uh Okay, that's it. Is that's it? Okay. Any other discussions? Any other questions or concerns? Hearing none. Roll call for the consent agenda items. Uh Miss Harry Block here. Mr. Bruce Mandre. Yes, Jack Turner. Yes, Lily Campbell. Yes, the um agenda items have been approved by the board. All right, we are now into uh Okay, I'm trying to figure out where we are here. Excuse me, one minute. Okay. Item 11, personnel, approve declaration of need for fully qualified educators. Move approval. Move approval. I'll second. Second. Any other discussion, questions? Hearing none. Seeing none, roll call. Harry Block, yes. Bruce Mandre, yes. Jack Turner, yes. Lily Campbell, yes. So that item has been approved and I think that is it until we now into board comments and then we
070will be moving for close session. Board comments. I think I had some more comments that I needed to talk about but I know we are pushing for time but as you heard the superintendent talk about the many things that we've done. Sava. That's the first one. I thoroughly enjoyed coming over for the show for the showcase. Yeah. Sava showcase. Yeah. I had a great time. I was tired when I got home because I ended up dancing with one of the students and he he showed me up. I gave him a handshake and told him, "You was better." So, we had a great great time. And um the student who went on the fire on the ladder, he went all the way up and came down. That was uh breathtaking. Frankie. Frankie. That was Frankie. He's
071also on the council. So we had a chance to talk to Frankie. Everything was so very well done and it was such an enjoyable day. So thank you. We really appreciate all of the work. And now the gradu the culture graduations, art culture events. Very well done. Thank you again all of you for the hard work, the dedication for putting that together. It was very informative. The speakers were great and you guys did a great job with the food and entertaining the parents. Uh I just want to see more next year. So, I know we'll be having more. So, thank you again for that work. Um, did I miss anything? I think you're capturing. We've been spending a lot of time together. We've been spending a lot of time together. We sure have. And I
072apologize. Oh, yes, I did miss something. I did attend the North State Conference and that's why I was not at uh the museum, but I sure missed a lot of my people too who were not there. So, we need my president of the North Charter group and a lot of you who have been attending were not there. But the one thing that I did really spend a lot of time with how to protect and empower your undocumented students. And I brought this back to give to the superintendent to make sure and it was from the lawyers from attorneys to make sure we're doing what we supposed to do and how we're doing it. So this is really important. I did a lot of highlighting in this thing because I wanted to make sure we were
073doing what we supposed to do. So, it's been a busy couple of weeks, but it's all good. All very good. So, thank all of you who've been working so hard to make to get ready for the close of the school year. So, thank you very much. Okay, with that, we are now going to move into close session. And the items to close session are close session per employee personnel matter pursuant to government code section 54957. Second close session anticipated litigation government code section 54956.9. And the next one is close section employee performance evaluation superintendence discussion government code section 54957. Those are the items that will be uh taken under advisement and close session. So with that we will be breaking for close session and returning when we finish. And again thank all of you each
074one of you for being here with us tonight. and staying with us. We really appreciate all of the reports and all of the work that you are doing for the students to make GCC what it is today, a great organization. So, thank you [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Back in session from close session and we just have information items information given to However, we did talk a little bit about the superintendent's evaluation and the work that he has done this year and as of now it's all very positive and we're very thankful for the things that he has done and the kind of work that he has put in for GCC's organization. So, we applaud him and give him accolades and we will be meeting to discuss the findings from the board. So
075with that, the next board meeting will be the next board meeting will be June 10th. June 10th is our next board meeting. Closing comments by the board members. Any other closing comments? Hearing none, seeing none, then I will entertain a motion for journment. I'll move second. It has been moved and second that we will adjourn the meeting uh for GCC board meeting. And all in favor? I the eyes have it. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you. [Music]